Kellie Shanygne Williams Wiki
She is an actress with over 15 credits to her name, however, Kellie Shanygne Williams is probably still known best for her role as Laura Wilson in the series “Family Matters”, which began airing back in the late ’90s. Besides national recognition, this role earned Kellie three Young Artist Award nominations, two for Outstanding Young Comedienne in a Television Series, and one for Best Young Actress Starring in a Television Series.
All about this versatile actress, her life, and her career after the show ended, you’ll find in this article.
Early life, family, and education
Born under the zodiac sign of Aries on 22 March 1976, Kellie recently celebrated her 47th birthday. She’s a native of Washington DC, USA, holds American nationality, and her ethnicity is African-American. Kellie was raised by her parents, Patricia and Ervin, alongside her younger siblings Donte and Marti. Their mother worked as a journalist for Jet magazine, and their father was a manager at a telephone company.
As a toddler, Kellie didn’t talk, so her father enrolled her into a theater program, which was a great idea as she came out of her shell, and her teachers recognized her talent for acting.
When it comes to her educational background, Kellie attended a local high school, and upon matriculating in 1994, enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles from which she graduated with a BA degree in 1998.
Roles in series
Kellie made her acting debut playing her most notable role to date, as Laura Winslow in the series “Family Matters”. From 1989 through 1998, Kellie was seen in 215 episodes of this comedy-drama, which followed the story of the Winslow family and their misadventures mostly caused by their neighbor, ultra-nerd Steve Urkel,. Kellie’s co-stars were Jaleel White, Reginald VelJohnson and Darius McCrary, the show had 17 award nominations, including one for Primetime Emmy, and nine wins.
Concurrently with her role in “Family Matters”, Kellie was seen in “ABC TGIF” (1993) and “Odville, MTV” (1997). During 2000 and 2001, Kellie portrayed Alice Adams in the series “What About Joan”, a comedy about Joan who depends on the daily support of her best friends, and starred Joan Cusack, Donna Murphy and Kyle Chandler.
In the following years, Kellie guest starred in “Girlfriends” (2002) and “The Parkers” (2003) before she was seen as Lynn in three episodes of the series “Eve” in 2006, which was her most recent TV series role.
Roles in movies
Kellie made her first movie appearance as Tuesday in the 1998 movie “Ride”, a comedy written and directed by Millicent Shelton. She followed with her role as Katie in the 1999 TV movie “After All”, then was next cast to play Cami in the 2005 comedy crime-drama, starring Usher, which was poorly rated by the audience (2.9/10) and was nominated for The Stinkers Bad Movie Award.
Four years later, Kellie was seen as Cee Cee in “Steppin: The Movie”, a musical comedy that follows the story of the step competitors who all want to win the big-money prize, which was nominated for the Teen Choice Award- Choice Movie: Music/Dance.
Kellie’s next role came almost a decade later when she was cast to play Charlotte Saxon in the 2020 romantic comedy “Christmas in Carolina”, also starring Stephen Fisher, Joslyn Y Hall, and Joe Hall Junior.
Most recently, Kellie was seen as Kelis in the 2022 fantasy comedy “A Family Matters Christmas”, which follows the story of Aiden who wishes that his family could all get along. He calls a Christmas spirit for help, but somehow the siblings switch bodies, and now they have to find a way to break the spell before Christmas morning. Although the movie had no nominations, the audience liked it.
Kellie’s fans will be happy to hear that she’s working on her newest project, a biographical drama entitled “First Lady of BMF: The Tonesa Welch”, in which she plays the lead female role. The director of the movie, Vivica A. Fox, stated that the film is in development, and should be released soon.
Husband and children
Kellie’s managed to keep her romantic life secret – although she’s been the subject of various rumors concerning her love life, she hasn’t commented on these assumptions.
On 5 September 2009, she married her then-boyfriend, Hannibal Jackson, a businessman and the owner of a company called Y-Tech. He was born in Seoul, South Korea but was raised in the USA – his mother is South Korean, and his father a native of Washington DC. Hannibal is well-educated. He attended George Mason University, from which he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Communication.
The two met through a mutual friend in 2007, and married after two years of dating, in a ceremony held at Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Maryland.
Their first child, a daughter named Hannah Belle Jackson, was born in 2010, and their son John Ervin Jackson in 2012.
As of May 2023, the family of four lives in their residence in Maryland.
Where is she now? How rich is Kellie Shanygne Williams?
As you may have seen, Kellie didn’t get the opportunity to showcase her talent after her part in “Family Matters”, which many critics believe unjust. Perhaps it was her absence from the entertainment world, but many of her followers backed her decision to devote her time to raising her children. Speaking of her followers, Kellie has an army of them on her social media accounts – her official Facebook page has been followed by over 650,000 people.
During her career, Kellie’s earned a decent amount of wealth, but has given a substantial part of her wealth to charity, and is known as someone who participates in a variety of charitable activities. She has received several honors for her commitment to her community and also for being a positive influence.
According to sources, as of May 2023, her net worth has been estimated at over $2 million.
Leave a Reply